“Just a few things. A change of clothes. A travel pillow. I charged your tablet and threw in some snacks. I know you won’t want to come home while she’s there.”
I hugged her. “Thanks, kid,” I whispered into her blonde hair. “But I can’t just abandon you.”
She smacked my shoulder. “You’re not. Chaos and I are going to crash at Kenna and Merrick’s house, so you don’t have to worry about us. She said she’d pick me up around lunch.”
“All right,” I said finally. “Text me if you need anything.”
“Of course,” she said with a faint smile. “Now go. She’s going to be OK. I know it.”
With her confidence, I almost believed it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Pain.
My full body ached as my mind clawed through a fog. I opened my bleary eyes and tried to move, but my limbs felt buried beneath cement. The familiar sound of monitors beeped beside me, and I shifted in the hospital bed.
Dr. Patel’s calm voice filled the room. “Easy, Dr. Morris.”
My moan was muffled by the tube down my throat.
“We’ll take that out. Just stay calm.”
In a few practiced moves, Dr. Patel pulled the tube from my throat. I gagged and coughed violently, tears springing to my eyes as the movement pulled at what I assumed were stitches in my abdomen.
I tried to form words around my raw throat. “Let me see my chart.”
“No. You’re a patient, and you’re going to act like one. The short of it: you’re lucky. But you had major surgery, and you need to rest. And if you start to get worked up when I let visitors in, I’m kicking them out.”
“Visitors?”
“Your brother’s here. And another man who claims to be your boyfriend?” She raised her brows.
“Hatchet,” I said hoarsely. “Are they fighting?”
“Who? Your brother and your boyfriend?”
I nodded weakly.
“No punches yet, but there’s some serious tension.”
I closed my eyes. Of course, they’d formed some sort of weird truce while I almost died, but I suspected that would soon come to an end. “I know the family-only rule for the ICU. But I need you to break it. You need to let Hatchet back here.”
Dr. Patel scoffed. “You think I was planning to get in the way of that man? He’d snap me like a twig. Besides, I heard from Lily that he practically funds my salary with how often he’s here. They’re both waiting. Do you want me to let them in?”
“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my throat. “Can you warn them to behave? Maybe give them ‘the look?’”
“The look?”
“The one you give the interns when you’re telling us not to mess up. That you’ll kick us out if you get even a whiff of tom-fuckery.”
“Ah, ‘the look.’ Sure. But I don’t know how much good it’ll do. What’s in the water in that clubhouse? Is it a requirement to be a giant to join a motorcycle club?”
A raspy chuckle escaped my throat. Dr. Patel handed me a cup of ice chips and then left.
Merrick walked in first, worry carved into his brow.
Hatchet followed close behind. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his jaw was locked so tight that the muscles ticked across his cheeks. He leaned down, bracing one hand carefully on the bed railing so he wouldn’t jostle me, and pressed his lips to my forehead.
